I’m fairly convinced there is a good formation or tactic with the players we had available today. And Hughes should certainly be familiar enough with that side by now. Still, I don’t disagree with you. We don’t know how good the new players are yet, and Hughes will have to experiment. It’s way too early to put much stock in predictions. It’s why I’m not upset about our season so far. At the same time, it’s also hard to get very excited about 1 point in two games.
Average first half where our defence looked ropey. Looked a different team second half again where we’d worked them out a bit. Austin still can’t move, Rom and Lemina iffy as a starting pair. Hoedt and Stephens not good really. But overall a decent enough performance against a good team. Hughes went all out to get something towards the end. Lots of positive signs and very different to last season, despite what some may say on here.
more plus marks than negative I thought Cedric was excellent in a back 4 Ings is a player that will make a difference if he stays fit the manager now has options from the bench Vestergaard and Ely will make a big difference on their return JWP put in some lovely deliveries, Vestergaard must be licking his chops Negs. Obviously CBs is a problem Romero and Lemina both pretty shocking, poor passing, giving the ball away, giving silly free kicks away and both were lucky to stay on the pitch. Pierre really must be in for Romero I would have loved a youth player on the bench to come on in the last 20 minutes and just run at them, Simms must be part of the set up
Decent performance, Ings sharp again. Hoedt and Stephens is NOT the CB partnership to go with. Redmond good again. Better defending and we would have got a well deserved point.
I like healthy Ings more than Austin, but Austin can still do enough to keep us up. We really, really stunk when he was hurt last year. We also stunk when he was healthy, but it was a bit more of a 16th place stench. I’d be okay with Austin as a reliable backup, but unfortunately he’s not very reliable. Also not convinced by Gabbiadini.
I don’t see movement from him so far this year. Ings needs someone playing off him with movement. If we play one up top like last year, then he’s best of a bad bunch. Fortunately though we are playing two. I love Gabbi but remain unconvinced too, but that’s more down to the paucity of opportunity for him in a two (which he needs badly).
Pretty much everything you typed is bang on the money there BILAB... Edit: Apart from Oriol and Josh's surnames!...
I know we're only two games, so it is very, very early days, but given (a) how threatening we look from corners, and (b) how poor Romeu and Lemina have been so far, my mind is drifting to a CM pairing of JWP and PEH. (With Redmond on the right and Ely on the left, if that last 40 mins vs Burnley last week is a sign of things to come from them both)
McCarthy Cedric Vestergaard Yoshida Bertrand Romeu PEH Lemina JWP Ings Ely Our best team on paper? Based on the first two games? Maybe Armstrong instead of PEH against poorer teams at home
Played pretty much the same side as last season to start with, and with similar results. Ings gave us a little bit of puncher’s chance and almost stole a lucky goal but overall we were mostly overrun. Second half, Hughes did a little tinkering and we were better. Would say the second half was fairly even. We looked the better side for long stretches as far as controlling play, but Walcott missed a sitter and a goal was disallowed for offside but it was still poor defending. The problem is still disorganization defending, and an inability to control the center of the pitch. When teams press us we cannot advance the ball past our own half, and eventually it costs us. Our defense could be better but we are giving them too much work to do. Redmond looked better second half when I think he was able to play more of a wing role. JWP took some great set pieces but needs to play in the center of the pitch. We got the sloppy Lemina today. Romeu looks a bit slow. People are blaming the refs for our many fouls but I think most of it was because were out of position and forced to give them away. Nothing that we didn’t already know from last season except Ings looks good. But even that’s not too surprising so long as Ings is healthy. It’s up to Vestergaard, Armstrong, and Moi to show us what they’ve got.
I think that we should experiment without Romeu for a couple of games. He gives away cheap free-kicks and possession too easily IMO.
I just got in, having totally missed the game, but sounds like everything I would have blind guessed about the game happened!
When JWP and Pierre have played together before (which isn't that often suprisingly) I have noticed that we have a lot more energy, control and ultimately more possession of the ball.
